Medieval diagram

Gallery of medieval diagrams. According to Friendly (2008) in "the earliest seeds [of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization] arose in geometric diagrams, in tables of the positions of stars and other celestial bodies, and in the making of maps to aid in navigation and exploration.".[1]

Villard de Honnecourt lived in 13th century France and may have been an itinerant master-builder of Picardy in northern France. His fame rests entirely on his surviving portfolio of 33 sheets of parchment (animal skin) containing about 250 drawings from about the 1230s, which is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (MS Fr 19093). It appears to be a model-book, with a wide range of religious and secular figures suitable for sculpture, and architectural plans, elevations and details, ecclesiastical objects and mechanical devices, with copious annotations. Other subjects such as animals and human figures also appear.

Ramon Llull (1232–1315) was a Majorcan writer and philosopher. He wrote the first major work of Catalan language literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show him to have anticipated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is sometimes considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Gottfried Leibniz.

Nicholas Oresme (c. 1323 - 1382) was one of the most famous and influential philosophers of the later Middle Ages. He was an economist, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, philosopher, psychologist, musicologist, theologian and Bishop of Lisieux, a competent translator, counselor of King Charles V of France, one of the principal founders and popularizers of modern sciences, and probably one of the most original thinkers of the 14th century.